I Watched Halloween 2 (1981) Last Night

You have a lot questions from somebody from New Jersey. First off, it was past midnight so technically it was "last night" but more to the point it is the continuation of the same night. They never did address, however, where the fuck Laurie's parents are. Did anyone tell them to come back from that party and see about their teenage daughter who narrowly escaped a mass murdering lunatic? Oh, I just asked a question too.

John Carpenter did everything he wanted to do in the first film and did not intend for there to be a sequel. Pressure from the studio coerced him to come back to write the sequel, but when he sat down at the typewriter he had a bad case of writers block. He infamously tried to pound out the thing nightly while swilling a six pack, which is how he came up with the ridiculous sibling plot line. I do like that H II picks up right where the original left off, and it is the only Myers sequel that has the same tone as the first film. The increase in violence is something I could have done without, but gory kills had become popular thanks to Friday the 13th, and they were trying to compete with that. As for the empty hospital, implausible as it is, it does lend a certain creep factor to the movie. Again, it is supposed to be the same night as part 1. I’ve never noticed the “last night” line, but will look for it the next time I watch.

R1 is correct, it’s past midnight so technically the kills did happen “last night,” but it’s still the continuation of the same night.

[quote] First off, it was past midnight

No it wasn’t. Dr Loomis says it’s around 11 o’clock when Ben Tramer’s brother comes up to the sheriff looking for help,

I don't think the hospital was so much missing patients as it was the middle of the night and they would all be sleeping. Michael (who evidently was starting to find his psychic powers) knew which room Laurie was in and the murders were all doctors and nurses who likely reminded him of those who kept him in the sanitarium, and likely hated. There was also a skeleton crew for over-night, and the hospital itself appears to be a small town one and not Cedars-Sinai or Bellvue. Just how big is Haddonfield anyway? I'm surprised they would have a hospital at all rather than a medical clinic.

OP/R4 - OK if you say so. It's not important enough for me to bother digging out the movie to watch that scene again. 11pm, midnight... really?

Small town or not, why would any hospital turn all the lights off in hallways and nurse stations if people are still working?

Did they really have hot tubs in hospitals where slutty nurses with giant boobs could take their ambulance driver boyfriends to fuck?

They do in heaven R8

If you asked that slutty nurse what the kinkiest thing she ever did was, sleeping with the ambulance driver in the hospital hot tub while she was supposed to be caring for the babies is probably like not in the top ten. She probably fisted some dude. She was a ho! She should have been the final girl.

[quote]Did they really have hot tubs in hospitals

Physical rehab.

I watched part of it last night, but have seen it a few times in 42 years. For some inexplicable reason, he spares the old couple at the beginning when he grabs their knife. I’ve always disliked the brother sister angle too, but there would be less to no use for JLC in the many sequels if she was just some random babysitter. Not to mention Danielle Harris. But I doubt Carpenter was thinking that far ahead.

I call for a moment of silence in remembrance of the ambulance driver’s bare butt.

R5 Agreed. A small hospital that probably was in ended of $$$ cut corners wherever they could including lights. The other ambulances were probably out rounding up dead bodies from MM's killing spree earlier in the day. Also didn't Myers kill the security guard? I think if memory serves he could've turned off a few lights/cameras if he wanted to then.

Ok, I think I know where “last night” comes from. They kept saying that Michael Meyers “escaped from a sanitarium last night.” So it’s the same night. That’s why kids are trick or treating. Laurie sent the kids she was watching to a neighbor’s house where they called police. Police pull up and Loomis is yelling, “I shot him 6 times! 6 times!” I’m surprised police didn’t wrestle him, arrest him, or kill him but I forget it was 1981 when middle aged white guys got a pass.

I like how the lights are on in the hospital but it’s dark as hell. When Jimmy tells Laurie it was Michael Meyers Laurie says, “Why me? Why me?” Meanwhile, her 3 friends and a dog are lying dead out there, but she doesn’t ask “Why them? Why them?”

Laurie is filmed in shadow in almost the whole movie. I think it was to disguise that ratty wig.

And I wonder if all the parents (except for Annie’s) are at the “town Halloween party” like the parents in Hocus Pocus. I wish I grew up in a town that partied hard on All Hallows Eve.

I thought Meyers killed the old couple but they didn’t show it. But every other murder was shown, so I guess he didn’t kill them.

I actually like this movie. I’m from a small town and there are little hospitals like this and they do get creepy at night. There are some good kills in this, too I think.

I’ve always assumed we’re meant to start wondering if Michael has killed Laurie’s parents.

OP, get your fainting couch, clutching pearls, and smelling salts if you are going to venture into H3, or Halloween 6/Curse of Michael Myers, (Tommy, the blonde kid, turns into blue eyed dark haired Paul Rudd).

H4&5 are cheesy as hell, but they're so bad they're fun to watch a time or two.

Am I the only one turned on by Tom Atkins's sleazy Dr. Dan Challis from H III? The moustache and tight, tan corduroys that he's going commando under are hot. And he's a drunk and a slut to boot.

That guy always played a bad guy in late 1970s-1980s tv shows.

Commando Challis

Jimmy looks like a lesbian

R1 OP’s point is that no one says last night when a new night is occurring. For example in the winter when it’s dark at 6pm you wouldn’t say last night to refer to shit that happened at 11pm yesterday or even 3am of same morning you would say yesterday night. OP is also correct no one celebrates Halloween 2 days in a row.

Halloween 2 is a weak film with hella continuity and logistical issues.

Zombie's H2 is on now on AMC. That one is a true stinker.

R24 THAT one jumped the white horse.

R23 I've never heard anyone say 'yesterday night', are you smoking copious amounts of pot? Or is it me?

Sorry disagree R23 - but nobody in the US says "yesterday night." If it is 9pm on tuesday, and I watched movies on tv from 8pm monday night to 3am tuesday morning I would say "I was up watching TV way too late last night."

Most people consider a new day starting when they get up in the morning and ending when they go to bed -- where midnight falls in that window is usually irrelevant.

Zombie's Halloween movies are terrible. I'm watching them on AMC and have decided that what he truly should do is remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre because that is his wheelhouse.

Jimmy doesn’t like being called a lesbian.

Jimmy’s very angry right now

Here's a list of wrong things =

That is a sad flat ass not worth remembering, r13

Are y'all really nitpicking logic in a movie about a 6 year old who murders a grown ass woman, then later escapes a sanitarium to go a killing spree unnoticed, and finally gets stabbed, falls off a balcony, shot at least eight times (including once in each eye) and at last blown up and still walks around? It's a movie. I hope none of you ever watches Phantasm or Tourist Trap -- you'll never get past the opening credits.

This might be sacrilegious, but I *almost* prefer "Halloween II" to the original. It has a much darker vibe than the first, and I find the hospital setting really creepy. Jamie Lee's wig in it is an abomination, but I actually like the slightly different look of the Michael Myers mask. It is probably my favorite sequel in the series, followed by Parts 5 and 6. People really seem to abhor those films too, but I don't know—I guess I tend to look for atmosphere over plot when it comes to slasher flicks, and all three of them have really dark and distinct atmospheres.

Speaking to R13's point, yes—I used to watch "Halloween II" on DVD as a teenager and jerk off to the ambulance driver's nude scene. He was cute, and that ass was fucking HOT.

Poor Nurse Jill.

Her shoes fall off as she’s lifted and dies.

The biggest plothole for me was what the hell happened to Jimmy after he passed out face first in to a steering wheel towards the end of the film?! Remember Jamie lee is hiding in the car, Jimmy comes in tries to start the car and then he loses consciousness and then you never see him again! Did Michael get him? It was so frustrating because he's the cutest boy in the film and he never got a proper ending. I was hoping to see his butt rather than the perv coworker.

R34, There's an alternate ending where Jimmy sits up in the back of the ambulance with Laurie. She's startled at first, but when she see's that it's him, she cries and says "We made it!"

I actually don't think 2 is bad at all. It definitely captures the feel of the original more than any of the others, which I like. I guess it's mostly a vehicle of slashings than the first one, but it works.

I haven't seen any Halloween films beyond Halloween 5. Are any of the others worth seeing? I have no interest in the Rob Zombie remakes, but I am wondering about H20, and the more recent ones with JLC.

H 6/Revenge and H Resurrection are garbage, as are the Zombie films. H20 for me is meh, mostly because Michael was all wrong (the mask and his gait) and the score was basically a re-hash of the score from Scream. It's also too glossy and lacks that Halloween movie feel. I prefer the new trilogy, which mimic the original three in tone all the way down to the fonts (H '18, H Kills and H Ends literally have the same fonts as H '78, H II '81 and H III, respectively).

The beginning of 2 isn’t bad at all as it has the police, the public out on the street, people in their houses and Dr Loomis all interacting and responding to these murders. It’s a little bit like when people go to the beach in JAWS - they know there’s danger, they see police around, they don’t want to go into the water…..then they go into the water and the rest of the movie happens.

Once they start focusing on the hospital, the movie just turns into a predictable slasher. Michaels in the hospital, there’s a nurse walking in a hallway…guess what’s going to happen? The hospital is ridiculously dark. There are lights on, but they don’t shed any light in a room or hallway, like real lights do. I’ve worked night shift as a nurse. It’s never that dark in hospital hallways or offices. We have to be able to see what we’re doing. I find excessive darkness in movies boring. Like Seven … there are lights on everywhere, but you can’t see.

So basically you just sit there and watch Michael Meyers kill acting students. Jamie Lee Curtis, who was a smart and quick heroine in Halloween, turns into a blubbering screamer. As Roger Elbert said, the move makes use of the Idiot Plot. The entire movie hinges on people being idiots: not listening to or not giving each other necessary information; doing stupid, unrealistic things like having sex in a hospital hydrotherapy tank (we didn’t even have those in 1980s hospitals) instead of watching your patients; a cop drives 80 mph on a suburban street crowded with trick or treaters and doesn’t see an ambulance in front of him. Good job, he adds to the death count.

The screenwriter just went, “Aw fuck it, I’m tired. Keep most of the action in an overly dark hospital. Jimmy? Wait…who’s Jimmy again? Oh yeah, that guy….nobody cares about him. He’s a Leo Sayer clone and is just there for girls to be unthreatened by. We can leave him in the car.”

I've never seen that 1 before R35 so thanks for sharing it. They should've including that ending in the film over what they put in.

[quote]H 6/Revenge and H Resurrection are garbage, as are the Zombie films. H20 for me is meh, mostly because Michael was all wrong (the mask and his gait)

I can't remember where, but I read an article a couple of years ago about how Michael Myers changed throughout the movie. In the first one, he's just called The Shadow (or something like that); he just quietly lurks on the periphery, walks around town in broad daylight and no one notices. Even his kills are fairly stealthy & bloodless.

In the later movies & particularly the Zombie movies, he's like this human killing machine and mows down everyone & everything in his path.

As a side note, I recently re-watched Halloween. III Season of the Witch and I had to laugh about "everyone" tuning into network TV to catch some crappy annoying commercial.

Adult masked Michael is credited in the first film as The Shape, which is pretty much what he is at night. Zombie turning him into a gargantuan killing machine is one of the many things he got wrong.

Of the recent DGG remakes, I think the first one (2018) was the best and comes the closest to capturing the feel and tone of the original 1978. Next, I would watch the third and final installment (2022). While most people HATE this movie because it reduces Michael to a side character who gets beaten up by an established wimp, there is something I enjoyed about it -- beyond the hot young lead. It was different, and they sure went with some bold, out-of-left-field choices, but it was entertaining. The middle movie (2021) was almost unwatchable. I started to laugh every time someone dramatically yells "Evil Dies Tonight!" which is maybe 50-60 times. Silly, sloppy, and ultimately pointless with a last kill that just fucking pissed me off because the character was the most engaging one in the movie and died an incredibly stupid death.

That said, all three are light years better than anything Zombie shat out.

Yes, you're right - it was The Shape, not the Shadow.

^ I know.

[quote]I'm surprised they would have a hospital at all rather than a medical clinic.

Our small town of roughly 12,000 people had a small hospital that is now a large medical center in a city of 20,00+ people.

H Ends was like H III from 1982 in that they both veered off into a completely different direction. H ‘18 was like the original in tone, atmosphere and with the great Carpenter scores. H Kills upped the violence similarly to the way that H II ‘81 did. I think all of this was intentional on the filmmakers’ part, all the way down to how each new film in the trilogy used the same credit fonts of the first three films.

R45 Your city lost 10,000 citizens & can still have a large medical center?

I didn't like that Laurie Strode had grown up into a crazy, hillbilly, survivalist cat lady...

Eh it was something different R48.

I think they should have made Laurie chill and normal in H18, the way that she was at the beginning of Ends. It had been decades since her night of terror with Michael, which is enough time to get therapy and move past it, particularly since he’d been locked away all that time. And then boom, when she least expects it, he escapes and comes after her again. She fights him and ends up pushing him off a balcony or something, but when she goes to look, he’s not there. Queue the music and the end credits. The next film could have opened a year later with her being the armed-to-the-tooth basket case that she was in H18.

I don't know; I thought H-18 was kind of an acknowledgement that victims of real life Michael Myers (mass shooters) can't just pick back up with their lives & go on as if nothing happened, even if society expects them to, kind of a more modern understanding of trauma. Plus that, it gave scenery chewing JLC all kind of opportunity as the Crazy Cat Lady with a gun

Because we all want to answer questions from a stooge who doesn't pay attention to the movie she has on.

Not that R1 did a bad job on her appropriate task as R1.

[quote] Your city lost 10,000 citizens & can still have a large medical center?

Typo. 20,000 people.

R53 lives in Port Charles, NY.

[quote] Loomis is yelling, “I shot him 6 times! 6 times!” I’m surprised police didn’t wrestle him, arrest him, or kill him but I forget it was 1981 when middle aged white guys got a pass.

In a community that had just seen a psycho on killing spree through the town's children ( including the police chief's daughter ), most people of any color would call it a good idea to gun down the psycho. Were I the police I'd just ask Dr Loomis why didn't you reload and shoot him some more.

[quote] Halloween. III Season of the Witch and I had to laugh about "everyone" tuning into network TV to catch some crappy annoying commercial.

But you forget "𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙜 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙮" at nine. . Of course everyone would tune in.

Donald Pleasence got top billing in Halloween. His name was a lot bigger than John Carpenter’s

The evil is gone!

I really think the sequels have all missed a golden narrative opportunity by not following up on the nurse in the car with Dr. Loomis in the first film. They don't need to even include Michael Myers or have any sort of killing, but just follow the day to day life of this nurse. I would imagine her life was very similar to Alice from the tv series (NOT the Scorsese film!) and just follow her around and show the various hijinks she and her nursing pals got up to).

That nurse is in HII and H20 (she dies in the latter).

Nurse Chambers appears for a third time - in Halloween Kills, where she inexplicably dies again.

She’s in two timelines: H ‘78/H II/H20 and H ‘78/H Kills.

But I don't want her to die! I want to explore her life as a single mom (you know she is!) working as a psychiatric nurse while also looking for love (frequently in all the wrong places! LOL!) This has comedy gold written all over it. They would probably have to change the actress if it went to series, someone with more pizaaz and oomph, maybe someone along the lines of Ann Jillian or Mariette Hartley (Love her Kodak commercials with James Garner and they could bring him in as a special guest star, the numbers would go through the roof).

R61 - And she doesn't survive in either one. DOOOOMED! She is DOOOOMED!

She’s was a chain smoker, so if Michael didn’t kill her, the cigs would’ve.

R58 I think the sequels missed another opportunity. They had something with the druid Dr. and that cult, whose name I had to look up, (the cult of thorn, to refresh my recollection, have to admit most viewings were while stoned). I've seen 5 a ridiculous number of times, but 6, where the cult kidnaps the baby, makes so little sense it's almost like a Ryan Murphy project.

My point being, there could've been something really interesting there if the movies were written on better cocain.

R65 4, 5 and 6 are utter garbage. I thought someone did write them while on some major drugs.

4, 5, and 6 are the only Halloweens I never saw and frankly the whole idea of an Irish cult being the root of Michael Myers' evil was just so ridiculous that it killed the franchise for me until JLC came back for H20. Leave that spooky Gaelic crap to part 3 please, they did it better and first.

^I would give 4 and 5 a look if I were you, but 6 is total rubbish and not really worth your time if you’re not a completist.